SUMMARY: The Category Manager develops the overall strategy for a product category and research new product options to drive sales and achieve targets. They are responsible for purchasing all of the lines in the assigned category.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Purchase all lines in assigned category.
Responsible for approximately 1,500 stock items from approximately 120-125 vendors.
Forecast sales volume to maximize inventory turns.
Develop strategies for new or updated products based on customer demand and product trends.
Works with the marketing team and sales to promote products.
Builds industry partnerships to promote a category’s products.
Develops a category strategy to reduce costs and increase product sales.
Analyze market trends and apply this knowledge to make insightful buying decisions.
Monitors inventory levels, procures additional stock, and develops strategies for working with sales, brokers, marketing, and manufacturers to get rid of excess or unwanted inventory.
Helps to optimize warehouse storage for products.
Creates regular reports on product availability.
Monitors the performance of both individual products and category overall.
Uses available data to determine the best- and worst-performing products, create profit and loss statements, and assesses performance against competitors.
Assess their product and category strategies and develop solutions to improve performance.
Evaluates vendor performance, quality, and costs.
Chooses the best suppliers for the category’s products.
Negotiate deals, promotional and food show allowances, and manufacturer support to ensure prices and products are competitive.
Communicates marketing requirements to the Marketing department.
Monitors vendors’ adherence to contractual terms throughout the relationship.
Working with a cross-functional team of marketing, procurement, and sales professionals, provides leadership to execute the category’s strategies throughout the organization to achieve company goals.
Inform team members of category and product goals, assigns roles and responsibilities, and works together to drive performance.
SKILLS REQUIRED:
Must have previous purchasing experience.
Must have strong decision-making and people management skills.
Must understand the product life cycle and how to turn their product ideas into goods that are efficiently made available or delivered to customers.
Must be organized.
Must be a self-starter who requires limited day-to-day direction.
Must be able to apply financial analysis techniques to analyze reports, determine product and category performance, and seek ways to cut costs and improve sales.
Must be a strong negotiator who can persuade vendors to offer better contract terms.
Must have strong analytical skills.
Experience in supplier management software. Experience in E3/Blue Yonder a plus.
Experience in enterprise resource planning software.
Experience in productivity software (Microsoft Office).
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:
A bachelor’s degree in business or supply chain management or the equivalent experience.
At least 5 years of experience in a category management role.
A food service distributor background is a plus, but not required.
DESCRIPTION OF EMPLOYER: Founded in 1901, Feeser’s, Inc. is a family owned and operated full-line foodservice distributor located in Harrisburg, PA servicing the Mid-Atlantic region. Feeser’s provides an expansive offering of dry, refrigerated, and frozen products to a diverse customer base comprised of restaurants, healthcare facilities, educational facilities, and other institutions.
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